They Call Me Toilet Woman to Limit My Work to a Critique of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
An interview with Pragya Akhilesh, a pioneer in efforts of rehabilitate men and women pushed into manual scavenging. Pragya Akhilesh. Photo: Lok Theatre/Facebook
Women24/Feb/2021
Pragya Akhilesh is called the ‘toilet woman of Delhi’. She is a trade unionist, activist and theatre director. She is also the national secretary of the Bhim Safai Karmachari Trade Union and the convener of Rehabilitation Research Initiative.
She has contributed numerous passages and articles to the
Indian Express, Hindustan Times, DownToEarth and Dalit Camera on the governmentâs failure to recognise the labour movement of sanitation workers and the failure to eradicate and rehabilitate manual scavengers. From 2010, her efforts with folk repertory groups like Bhim Dal, Ambedkar Manch and Lok Theatre in Delhi have led to campaigns such as